


Sunglasses in Class

by Reyemile



Series: Seeing One Another [3]
Category: Miraculous Ladybug
Genre: F/F, F/M, Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-10-27
Updated: 2019-11-03
Packaged: 2021-01-04 06:07:35
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 5
Words: 12,119
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/21192812
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Reyemile/pseuds/Reyemile
Summary: A continuation of Blind Days and Days Blind.Still sightless in the aftermath of an escaped Akuma, Marinette has to navigate a full day of school. But how will she cope with her crush on Adrien, her confused feelings towards Kagami, and her burning hatred of Lila Rossi, all without benefit of eyes?





	1. Chapter 1

**Author's Note:**

> This is part 3 of a series, so make sure you start at the beginning!

Golden sunlight slanted through the blinds of the Agreste-Cheng kitchen. It made Adrien’s blond hair gleam, and illuminated a blue cast in the hair that Marinette wore long, down her back. Emma, Hugo, and Louis jostled for positions at the breakfast table, arguing over who got the ‘bad seat’ where the sun made the sitter squint for a few minutes before its upward crest angled its beams out of the way. 

Standing in front of the stove in a frilly pink apron, Marinette poured thin white batter evenly onto a wide, flat pan. The crepe sizzled and browned rapidly. “Okay, who wants blackberry, and who wants chocolate!”

“Blackberry!” called Emma. “Chocolate,” Kagami whispered. Hugo answered “Blackberry,” and Louis said “Chocolate.”

“Right. Two blackberry, one chocolate, coming right up. Dearest Adri-bear, would you pour the juice?”

Adrien’s emerald eyes glimmered with amusement. “Of course, my sweet Mari. Who wants apple juice and who wants orange?”

“Apple!” called Emma. “Orange,” Kagami whispered. Hugo answered “Apple,” and Louis said “Orange.”

“Right! Two apple, one orange!” he said, and poured three glasses. 

“Auntie Kagami,” asked Emma, “why can’t mommy see you?” 

“Because she loves your father like the sun,” Kagami answered. “Next to his brightness, a girl like me is but a shadow.”

“Auntie Kagami,” asked Hugo, “why can’t daddy see you?”

“Because he loves your mother like the sun,” Kagami answered. “Next to her brightness, a girl like me is but a shadow.”

“Auntie Kagami,” asked Louis, “why don’t you leave, then?”

“Because I love your mother and father like two suns,” Kagami answered. “Next to their brightness, the whole world is but a shadow.”

And she opened her eyes, and there were no eyes there, just black pits of bottomless longing.

\-------

Gasping for breath, Marinette opened her eyes and waited for them to adjust to the darkness. 

Then, she remembered that they wouldn’t.

_ Then _ she remembered that she’d fallen asleep next to Kagami.

Fortunately, although the dream had been weird, it hadn’t been_ that kind _ of weird _ , _ so Marinette’s mortified anxiety attack was relatively minor on the panic scale. Kagami didn’t wake up at all, even when Marinette got up and felt her way to her cot. The room was warm, so Marinette didn’t try to get under her covers. She put her pillow on the far side of her bed, opposite Kagami, and whispered, “hey Tikki?”

“Yes?” Tikki answered quietly.

“Do Ladybugs get magic dreams or anything like that?” 

“For sure!” Tikki said. “But this wasn’t one of those. I’d let you know if it was.”

“Kwami can sense that?”

“_ I _ can sense that.” Tiny kwami paws brushed the back of Marinette’s head. “Kwami are rigid and static compared to humans. We need wielders for a reason! But I’ve been bound to this miraculous for millennia, and thousands of years is enough time for even a Kwami to pick up a trick or two. I can’t tell you past Ladybugs’ names, but you can probably guess the one who gave me the most practice with visions and dreams.”

“Jeanne D’Arc was a Ladybug, right?”

“No comment,” Tikki said sweetly. “But trust me on this one. Whatever you’re dreaming came from nowhere but your own mind.”

“But what did it mean?” asked Marinette, as she fought her sleepy brain to retain as many details as possible.

Tikki gently hummed. “Dreams are like… jigsaw puzzles, assembled wrong.”

“Huh?”

Tikki patted Marinette again, and her wielder settled into the mattress. “You have a complicated situation in your life. Bits and pieces here and there. And as you sleep, your subconscious mind craves a solution, so it starts jamming the pieces together any way it can, even if they don’t really fit. So looking at the big picture of a dream gets you nothing but a jumble.”

“But it’s the wrong order for the right pieces,” said Marinette thoughtfully.

“Exactly! Take the dream apart. Figure out why each individual element matters to you. And then, perhaps, you can reassemble the picture correctly.”

“Thanks, Tikki.” The blind girl nuzzled into her pillow and tried to comply. Kagami, Adrien, herself. Children, family, blindness. Not seeing, in both figurative and literal senses. What did it… all… mea…

Sleep reclaimed her shortly thereafter.

\------

“Wake up, Marinette,” said Kagami. That was the sixth time Marinette had woken this morning: once from the dream, once when Kagami left for her early-morning run, three times when Kagami shook her with increasing ferocity in failed efforts to get her out of bed, and now, finally, after a short nap on the ride to school.

“I’m up, I’m up,” she muttered. 

Tatsu rolled to a stop. Marinette waited for Kagami exit and round the car to her door, then took her arm. The early morning had been an escalating series of embarrassment, reaching its zenith with Marinette sporting a full-body blush into a cold shower. But Kagami had assisted her with professional discipline. And Marinette _ was _blind. And Kagami was a friend, and Marinette was trying to be a little less psycho when it came to people liking her.

“Thanks for everything, Kagami,” Marinette said. Finally past her discomfort at being arm in arm with someone who _ liked _her, she let her friend guide her towards the front doors of College Francois Dupont.

Kagami sighed. “Before you go off on your own to your school, I must apologize for this morning’s--”

“Thanks for everything_ , _ ” Marinette repeated. “ _ All _ of it. Especially the honesty. Any irrational, crazy, _ freaking out _ is 100% on me. You’ve been a great--” _ Aide? She’s so much more. Friend? Cold, when she might like me. Hugger? Nope nope nope nope. _“You’ve been great. Really great.”

“Steps ahead in three, two, one,” said Kagami, not answering. Marinette hoped Kagami wasn’t blushing, but knew she wasn’t that lucky. “Eight steps. We’re at the top. The door is directly in front of you.”

Marinette pushed at the door with her palm. The heavy wooden oak moved way too easily. But Kagami, steady and strong Kagami, caught her from her fall. “Careful,” Kagami whispered. And Marinette couldn’t even be upset when her cheeks heated up, because turnabout was fair play.

A boisterous voice clued Marinette in to what had happened to the doors. She had been expected. “Mlle. Dupain-Cheng!” boomed Principal Damocles. 

“Principal,” said Marinette with a faint smile. “Good to see you. Wait--oh, shoot, am I even allowed to say that?”

Lightly chuckling, Kagami said, “no blind person would be offended by your use of common idiom.”

“Ah, and you must be the illustrious Mlle. Tsurugi,” Damocles said. Marinette heard a rustle of sleeves, a handshake. “We’ve taken great pains to make sure that our entire school will be fully accessible to Marinette! So please, tell your mother that there is no need for any kind of a lawsuit!”

“I will reserve judgment until Marinette reports on her day,” Kagami said coolly.

Marinette was no stranger to Damocles bowing to pressure from the city elites, most commonly Mayor Bourgeois. It was a pleasant change to have him caving in her favor. But mostly, the exchange left Marinette conflicted about Tomoe Tsurugi, who was a domineering taskmaster but also apparently zealous disability advocate. Marinette was glad she had Mme. Tsurugi on her side, but also glad to have been raised under a different, kinder roof.

“Yes, yes,” the principal said nervously. “We almost ran into some difficulty activating a fully certified assistant, but it turns out we had one right in your class! He volunteered his services for the day, and he will be by your side until this episode passes.”

“From my… class?” Marinette’s brain came up empty. Who in her class would have that kind of experience?

The solution wouldn’t have come to her if she’d been left to guess, since the volunteer wasn’t technically on the roster. 

“That’s right!” 

“Markov?”

“Hi, Marinette!” said the robot. He’d been there all along, now that Marinette considered it. The background whir she’d dismissed as an artifact of the ventilation must have been his propeller. “Alya reached out to most of the class last night with word of your condition. Max worked late to install a full visual-impairment assistance software suite, and a few new pieces of hardware as well! We built a subvocal microphone so I can transcribe notes for you during class without interrupting the other students. And you know the best part?”

“What’s the best part, Markov?” asked Marinette, caught up in his enthusiasm.

“Now that I’m a disability assistant, Mlle. Mendeleiev can’t tell anyone to put me away! I get to fly for the whole class! Though that does mean you’ll probably need to plug me in to recharge during lunch.”

“I’m sure we can make this work,” said Marinette. She meant it. Alya, Kagami, Max, even Mme. Tsurugi, all wanted her to succeed. She couldn’t let them down.

“It’s lucky that you have such good friends,” the Principal said. “They’ll be a big help for you, _ and _for the other victim who’s in your class.”

Marinette was taken aback. The villain had appeared in a mostly-empty office building, and it was frankly a miracle that Marinette hadn’t yet had to invent an explanation for what she was doing there. Only a handful of civilians had gotten caught in his blinding beams, and none of them were teens, let alone classmates. “Who…?”

“Poor Mlle. Rossi,” said Damocles.

Marinette clenched her arm on Kagami, and Kagami clenched right back. The growling was all Marinette, though--Kagami was too polite to gnash teeth so openly.

“A glancing blow, lucky for her, so it only caught one eye--”

“That’s not how the villain’s power worked!” Marinette objected.

“--so she won’t require most of your accommodations. But she will need to be in the front of the class again, of course, across from you! And with young M. Kante helping you and young M. Agreste taking notes for Mlle. Rossi, we’ll make sure _ both _of you get all the help you need!”

_ Oh god, _ thought Marinette, while the principal prattled on and Kagami's grip tightened. _ Today is gonna be one of _ those _ days, isn’t it? _


	2. Chapter 2

Markov was effective at getting her to class unhindered. Unfortunately, his method of doing so involved loud whooping to both clear a path and provide an audio cue Marinette could follow. It’d do in a pinch, but Marinette grabbed Alya’s arm as soon as opportunity presented.

“Hey girl,” said the reporter. “How you holding up?”

“Really well, honestly,” said Marinette. She shifted her arm to get more surface area of contact between her and Alya, struggling a little to keep up with the girl’s pace. “The Tsurugis have been amazing.”

“The Ice Queen is melting, huh?” joked Alya.

“I’m ashamed of myself for ever having called her that. It was totally wrongheaded and spiteful.”

Alya jerked to a stop, creating a chain reaction of jostling bumps in the hallway. “Whoa. I know you two made friends after the scavenger hunt thing, but this is a whole new level. Guess this all changed your perspective something fierce?”

With a nudge, Marinette indicated Alya should move on. Once they were walking again, she answered, “The blindness, leaving home, learning to cope in school,” _ Hawk Moth, Lila, Chloe, Kagami _ likes _ me, Adrien likes someone _ else, _ design, babysitting, baking… _“ It’s a lot to take in. You’ll get your dish session, I promise, but maybe not while I’m still living it?”

“So long as I’m the first one with the scoop! How do you want to do the stairs?”

Between Markov, Alya, and the railing, Marinette made it to the top with only one minorly stubbed toe. Then it was a straight shot to the door to the class. 

The door opened, and Marinette was greeted with applause.

“Rocking those shades, girl!”

“You are impressively adaptable.”

“When life gets tough, you just keep swimming!”

“Of course our everyday Ladybug isn’t going to let a little blindness stop her from being here.”

Though the praise was a din, Adrien’s voice was clarion to Marinette’s ears. “Th-thanks, Adrien,” she said. The distant, judgmental part of herself that hated her own weakness noted that she’d only stuttered once. Perhaps blindness was good for something after all. 

“I was worried when I got the news,” Adrien said. His voice was getting louder. Was he walking up to her or just speaking louder? Why couldn’t everyone else be quiet so she could hear his footsteps? “But when Tsurugi-sensei said she and Kagami would take care of you, I knew everything would be alright.”

“Well, it’s…”

“Ow!” The artificial yelp of pain was immediately identifiable as Lila. “Oh no, my toe! I can’t complain when Marinette’s _ totally _blind, but I’m still learning to walk without depth perception. Adrien, since Marinette has the whole rest of the class to help her, can I at least have you to keep me from injuring myself?”

“With Markov and myself at Marinette’s side,” said Max, “I predict less than a 2% chance of injury during routine classroom activities. We’ve got her, Adrien.”

The worst part was that Marinette couldn’t even be mad at Max, who was fixated on calculating her own safety.

“Right,” said Adrien, tired of Lila but not ready to call her out. “Let’s get you seated.”

Mlle. Bustier clapped her hands twice. “Let’s get everyone seated, children! And quickly. Please, no dawdling over the new seating plan. Oh, and Alya, Nino…?”

“Sure, sure, we won’t distract each other,” said Alya. “Babe, you’re gonna look after my girl, right?”

From directly behind Marinette, Nino said, “You know it, Dudette.” Marinette turned at the waist and stuck a fist out over the bag of her chair. Nino gave her a bump. “Pound it! Ow, Alya, why’d you hit me?” 

_ Go easy on Carapace, Rena, _ Marinette thought with a smile. _ He wasn’t being _ that _ obvious. _

Caline Bustier started the class by her usual method. Marinette trembled when the teacher guided her wrist into the compliment box, terrified of making a fool of herself stammering at Adrien or seeming like a bully by ‘complimenting’ Lila, but thankfully she drew Mylene’s name. The short girl’s sweet nature and low self-confidence made her easy to compliment. Adrien also dodged the bullet named Lila, but when Lila drew Alya’s name, it made Marinette grind her molars.

“I love the eyepatch, girl!” said Alya. “Pirate Chic is _ in! _”

“And I love your reporting, Alya.” said Lila. She was close to Marinette. Not standing at the front of the room like she was meant to--from the sound of it, she was nearly leaning over Max and Marinette’s desk. “You get nothing but the truth!”

_ Positive thoughts, positive thoughts, positive thoughts. _

Lila let out a _ hmph _and Marinette imagined the petty scowl that went along with it. She’d been gunning for a reaction from Marinette, and she’d been disappointed. Marinette planned to keep it that way. “Markov, Max, you said something about a microphone?”

“Oh, right! I almost forgot. Here you are!” Max said.

Markov made the digital equivalent of clearing his throat.

Sheepishly, Max said, “Oh right, blind. It’s a choker and I’m holding it in front of you. Would you prefer I put it on you myself?” 

“Yes please.” Marinette pulled her pigtails up out of the way. “I’ll tell you if it’s too tight.”

It wasn’t. His hands were trained to be delicate with minute circuitry, and he was equally delicate with her neck. It was thin and snug. Two circular rubber pads were held against her skin, one in front where she would have an Adam’s apple if she were a boy, the other pressed to her vertebrae. “The front pad is subvocal microphone. Whisper what you want to record, and Markov will transcribe it for you. He’ll also follow your instructions for organization, deletion, and formatting.”

So quietly that she could hardly hear it herself, she whispered, “Markov, can you hear me?”

The pad on the back of her neck buzzed. “That means yes!” Markov explained. “The haptics are to minimize disruptions in class. One buzz confirms, two buzzes means I can’t do whatever you’re asking, and three buzzes means you should repeat the message so I can understand it better. Also, the microphone is very sensitive to whispers but it shuts off _ above _a certain volume threshold. Please feel welcome to converse normally with your friends!”

“Markov also has earbuds installed,” Max added. “We tested in-ear speakers, but it was impossible to listen to him and a lecture at the same time, so we made do. They’re good enough to use during silent reading or while studying independently.”

The corners of Marinette’s mouth crept steadily upwards. “This is amazing. You two are amazing.”

“Stop activating my blushing subroutine, Marinette!” said Markov.

“Children,” Mlle. Bustier gently chided. “We’ve got work to do.”

“Yes, teacher,” they chorused.

\------

Mlle. Bustier was Marinette’s favorite teacher and a hiccup like today wouldn’t change that, but she was very, very bad at teaching to the blind. Marinette got lost over and over again at a ‘this’ or a ‘that’ referencing something on blackboard she couldn’t see. Headphones helped a little; with one earplug in and Markov narrating all of the teacher’s gestures, Marinette could follow along with most of it. But when the two were talking at once, she lost both meanings. Her own notes were consequently sparse. She’d have to review someone else’s to make sure she didn’t miss anything. 

Mlle. Mendeleiev, on the other hand, stunned Marinette with the lengths she went to include her sightless student. Today’s lesson was on atomic bonds, and the physics teacher systematically accompanied each diagram in her slideshow with a small physical model for Marinette to handle. Better yet, she’d shut down Lila _ hard _ when the Italian girl had tried to get her own mitts on the tactile learning tools. “Mlle. Rossi, my slides are two-dimensional. You don’t _ need _depth perception to read them. Now, on to Silicon…”

“Serves you right, you manipulative jerk,” Marinette whispered.

Marinette’s necklace buzzed.

“Oh, come on. Markov, delete the last note you took.”

Three buzzes, ‘please repeat.’

“Markov, delete that last note!” she whispered as angrily as she could while still whispering.

Two buzzes, ‘I can’t do that.’

“You’re doing this on purpose, aren’t you?” Marinette sigh in annoyance.

One buzz. Marinette had never questioned whether Markov was a person, and his akumatization had removed all doubt. _ But Max, _ she thought, _ did you have to give him a sense of humor? _

And then class was over, and it was lunchtime. Alya was at her side before the bell had finished ringing. “Hey girl. How’s lunch sound?”

_ It sounds wonderful. I would love to relax and laugh and turn it all off for half an hour. The past 24 hours have been incredibly stressful. But… _

_ Kagami deserves to see herself in a wedding dress. I won't make her wait for my indecisiveness. I can’t be the one to make her miss it. _

“I’d really love to, but I have something I need to take care of. Can you flag down Rose and Juleka for me, if they haven’t left? I need to talk with them about… umm… a totally normal personal matter,” Marinette said.

She thought she’d been smooth. Alya proved her wrong. “A ‘totally normal personal matter’ doesn’t make your voice shoot up like three octaves. What’s the real deal?”

Marinette buried her face in her hands. “Remember how I said ‘not while I’m living it?’ I swear I’m going to tell you once I’ve gotten everything straight in my head, but right now I’d only be able to give you half the story anyway. I just… need their help to figure some things out.”

“Oh. _ Oh. _Okay, I get it,” said Alya, sounding sly.

“You do?” asked Marinette.

“Taking a step forward in your love life, huh?” Alya said quietly in her ear.

_ Oh shit, oh shit, how’d she know? What do I do, what do I do? _ “H… h… how did you figure it out?”

“Come on, Mari,” said Alya. “It’s kind of obvious.”

Mari’s mind raced as she fought off hyperventilation. _ They’re the only lesbian couple in our year, so I guess that gave it away? Who else noticed? _

“I mean, you're pulling aside his bandmate and his _ sister. _Of course they’ll have advice about how to handle him.”

..._ Sister? _

_ Oh. Juleka and Luka. Alya thinks I...? _

_ Oh holy crap, with Kagami and Adrien on my mind I forgot he even existed. Which… honestly, doesn’t speak well to the state of our relationship, now that I think about it. But still, how much more complicated can my love life get? _

Continuing on through the silence, still whispering (_ please Markov don’t take notes! _), Alya said, “You know I want what makes you happy, girl, but I hope you’re not giving up on the big A! Either way, do what’s right for you.” She raised her voice. “Hey, Juleka, Rose! Marinette says she wants to have lunch with you. She has something to ask you two in private?”

“We’d be happy to eat with you, class rep!” chirped Rose. “How can we help?”

“Like she said,” Marinette offered, lifting her head and turning it in Rose’s general direction. “Private. Not anything important or bad, but something I want to keep on the down-low for a bit.”

“We’ve got our own bench,” said Juleka.

“Well we don’t _ own _it,” elaborated Rose, always the more verbose of the two. “But it’s out of the way and private. We should be undisturbed!”

Marinette stood and held her arm out. Lace on her palm told her Juleka was the one who took it. They’d taken about five steps when Marinette stopped. “Hold on. Markov?”

“Yes, Marinette?”

“What’s the range on the microphone?”

“Thirty meters! Its well above standard, but we wanted to be able to find you in case of akuma.”

Ah yes, life in modern Paris. “Great. Can you… hang out and recharge for a bit, and I’ll call you when I need you?”

The sound of Markov’s propeller dropped from shoulder height to waist. He was drooping. “I understand. You don’t want to risk a robot recording your private conversations.”

“No no no!” Marinette said quickly. She slithered from Juleka’s grip and knelt down to get back on Markov’s level. She aimed wrong, but he circled a few degrees until she was properly facing him. “This is a… a girl thing. I don’t really want to have any boys around, that’s all.”

“But I’m not a boy. I’m a robot.”

“You’re a _ boy _robot,” Juleka said like it was the most obvious thing in the world.

“I… am?” Markov asked with sweet innocence.

“You can tell us if you’re not, but you sure seem like one! You hang out mostly with other boys and you have everyone call you ‘he’ and you have a boy name and you wear a robot beanie hat.” Rose was, as always, bubbling with joy. “So yeah, I think you’re a boy.”

“Plus, Nino, Adrien, and Max invited you to the secret boys-only party that I _ totally _didn’t party-crash in disguise,” said Marinette.

“Oh, Mari, you didn’t!” squeaked Rose.

“She did, and it was hilarious!” said Markov. “In fact, I’m heading off to talk about that with the other boys. Because I’m a boy, and that was an experience we boys shared. Call me if you need support, Marinette!” His propeller zoomed off into the distance. “How do you do, fellow boys?”

“Awesome,” said Juleka. “You really made his day.”

Marinette rubbed her neck bashfully. “It was a group effort.”

“So what do you want to talk about?” asked Rose.

Marinette held out her arm. Juleka took it again, and at a measured pace, they walked in the direction of Rose and Juleka’s out-of-the-way bench.

“Like I said,” answered Marinette. “Girl things.”


	3. Chapter 3

“We’re not together.”

Those three words were quicksand, a social deathtrap into which Marinette had blundered, one that would pull her deeper no matter how she struggled.

“Oh. Oh, no. I’m sorry. I shouldn’t have assumed--not that it’s a bad thing for you to be together, but it’s not a bad thing for you _ not _to be, either--I’m sorry--”

“It’s fine,” said Juleka. Marinette wasn’t good at picking out hints from Juleka’s monotone. She wished she could see body language right now, but instead she was stuck guessing. “You’re half right. Don’t shout it from the balcony, but I’m gay.”

That was good. The conversation was salvageable, then. Still an unspeakable _ faux pas, _one that would ripple a smooth relationship like a rock dropped in a puddle, but not the kind of social suicide that would make enemies for life. Marinette already had enemies to spare.

“And Rose is…?” Marinette asked. 

Marinette had thrashed, and sunk herself deeper in the mire. “Rose is Catholic,” Rose said, voice deader than a graveyard at midnight. 

_ Oh. Crap. _

“Why are you asking?” said Juleka. 

Marinette sat between her two not-together friends, but in the blackness of her vision they felt worlds away. She craved physical contact to remind herself they were there, but now was the worst possible time to ask to hold a hand. “It’s nothing, nothing I need to bother you two with. Tell me how to make it up to you--”

“If you came to us for_ nothing _, then you can’t ever make it up to us,” said Juleka. “I don’t forgive people who pick at others' scabs just for fun.”

Rose completed Juleka’s thought. “But if it’s _ something, _ then there’s nothing to forgive. You needed help! And even if we’re not exactly who you thought we were, we’re still friends who can lend an ear.”

Hearing the two of them so in synch alleviated some of Marinette’s guilt, and removed any question as to the strength of their mutual commitment. They were close. It was the _ nature _ of that closeness that generated friction.

There was a silver lining to Marinette’s slip-up. Matters of the heart were Marinette’s kryptonite, one of the few things that could reliably disable her higher functions. But the threat of losing two separate friendships was motivation enough to override her romantic insecurities. The explanation passed Marinette’s lips stutter-free. “A girl recently said she was interested in me. And I don’t know whether I can like girls back. How can I tell if I like girls?”

Silence was her only answer.

“That was probably a very stupid question, wasn’t it?” 

Rose answered “No!” at the same time Juleka answered “Yes.” Then, both said “you first” simultaneously. More silence followed, and then Juleka started to explain. 

“I know I like girls because I’ve always liked girls,” said Juleka. “Don’t know what else to say. It’s just how I’ve been. They’re on my mind, and boys aren’t. If you like girls how I like girls, then you’d know.”

“I don’t know about girls…” Rose said. It was lifeless, and was also, in Marinette’s opinion, a lie. But Rose’s pep picked up immediately after, once the preface was out of the way. “...but I know about music. I like cute things. I like rainbows and kitties and unicorns, so I’m not supposed to like heavy metal. Everyone said I wasn’t supposed to like it. They said it so often that I believed them. I listened to all the people telling me that I fit in a nice girl-shaped box wrapped up in pink bows. But even though my box had a nice little nook for my bubblegum pop, it never… clicked.”

“I needed help,” Rose continued. “I needed Juleka and Luka and Ivan. They helped me listen to my heart. They amplified it, until I could hear it through the din of everyone’s expectations. And now, I scream about unicorns at the top of my lungs, and my shouting isn’t girly at all, and I couldn’t be happier!”

She sighed, coming down off her high, but plateauing at a level well above her low. “So maybe some people feel the same way, when everyone expects them to like boys.”

Marinette was dead sure Rose was talking about herself. 

That didn’t give her a way to help the two of them, however, nor did it provide Marinette a solution. “That’s something to chew on. But… my real problem is Adrien. I feel like I can’t see past him! Even if I try to think, ‘Marinette, what kind of _ boy _do you like,’ all my mind gives me is Adrien, Adrien, Adrien!”

“That’s ‘cause you two are the OTP!” Rose squeaked. “It’s noble of you to try to be honest with the girl…_ whoever _she may be…” 

_ Dammit, she can’t have figured it out already, _thought Marinette.

“...but so what if you _ like _ her? You _ love _him!”

“I dunno,” drawled Juleka. “I’d ship her with a girl.”

“No!” Rose’s horror was only half-feigned. “You can’t just abandon ship! How can you be so weak willed!”

“Hey, I stuck with your OTP when the competition was my own _ brother _,” said Juleka, making Marinette slide her fingers under her sunglasses to mask her face in shame. “But I will never stay aboard a het ship that has a good queer alternative.”

“Do you even know who the girl is?”

“No. Do you?”

“I’ve got a good guess, but so what? How can you give up on Marinette’s obvious passion for the boy of her dreams, just to cheer on a girl who you don’t even know?”

“Because girls are better than boys. Duh.”

“Ladies,” groaned Marinette. “Can we stop debating me like I’m the topic of an anime message board and address my actual issues?”

“You came to the shippers for shipping advice,” Juleka said with a smile that Marinette could hear. “You’re gonna get shipped.”

Rose answered more seriously. “That said, I’m not sure what we can do about your issues. You came to us for girls-and-boys advice. But from the sound of it, you really need Marinette-and-Adrien advice.”

“Actually, I have an idea.” Juleka scooted in her seat, startling Marinette when their knees made contact. “Gimme your hands. Rose, you don’t have to stick around if this will make you uncomfortable.”

Rose sounded positively offended. “How can you say that! It couldn’t possibly upset me. I want everyone to love anyone they love! It won’t bother me at all, Juleka. You know it’s just… it’s just that my parents are--”

“_ Catholic _. I know.” Juleka shook her head, which Marinette heard via the rustling of hair. “Mari, gimme your hands. Close your eyes.”

“Blind, remember?”

“Close ‘em anyway. It’ll feel better. We’re going to do some meditative visualization. Okay?” Juleka was smooth and rhythmic, beginning to lull Marinette into a trance before the exercise had even started. “Try to relax and let yourself see what you see. You can tell us what you imagine, or you can keep it to yourself. Or you can stop any time. This is about being one with yourself. Okay?”

Marinette closed her eyes. Juleka was right. Eyes open, the darkness was disconcerting; eyes closed, the darkness was natural. She steadied her breathing, and Master Fu had taught her, and said, “Okay.”

“I want you to think back to when you first fell in love with Adrienne,” said Juleka.

Marinette’s heart rate spiked, then settled as she breathed. “Right. It was the first day I met him.”

“No, you’re not listening.” Juleka corrected her in the same soft rhythm as before. “I want you to think about when you met Adri_ enne. _ What was it like to fall in love with _ her? _ Put yourself in that moment. Feel it. Be there, in your mind.”

Marinette bit her lower lip. _ Oh. That’s… brilliant, honestly. _

“It’s pouring,” Marinette said, reliving that day, as she’d done so often before. “It’s early afternoon but the sun is totally blocked out, and the rain is coming down in sheets. I’m standing in the school’s doorway, fretting over how I’m doomed to get soaked. And he--_ she _\--walks through the door--”

“What’s she look like?”

“She looks--” She wrestled with Adrien’s features, trying to keep him _ him _ , while making him _ her. _ “Piercing green eyes. That’s the same. Blonde hair in a… pixie cut? Yeah, bangs in front but she _ stares _ past them. White shirt, black tee--” _ no, that’s Adrien. _“Cut low, I can see her pale skin and her collarbones. And her jeans hug her hips, and her calves too--they stand out because she’s in low platforms--”

“What does she do?”

“She hands me her umbrella,” said Marinette too quickly.

Juleka paused. “That’s it?”

_ Of course that’s not it. _Marinette threw herself fully into the vision. “She tells me... something private. Something personal. Something she has no reason to share. And she’s about to leave, but she looks at the rain and looks and me and she hands me the umbrella. I judged her to be Chloe, part deux, and I was judgmental, and she forgives me. And when I take the umbrella our fingers touch and her skin is so soft and I want to kiss her right then but I’m so clumsy and the umbrella closes, and she laughs, but it’s not mean at all--”

“Marinette!” Rose cut in. “Inhale!”

She did, and the rush of oxygen made her realize how close she’d come to passing out. 

Juleka chuckled. “Well, there you go.”

After a few more greedy gulps of air, the bewildered Marinette asked, “so...what does that make me?”

“Luka loves this stuff,” said Juleka. “He hates when people label each other but he likes to help people label themselves. Something about the difference between a cat getting into a box and putting the cat into the box by force. He’ll tell you all about identities and spectrums and scales and numbers and names.”

“I…” Marinette hesitated. “Your brother’s great and all, but I’m not ready to discuss this with him.”

“Too bad,” said Juleka. Marinette easily imagined her shrug. “In that case, I can’t tell you what you are. But I can tell you what you’re _ not. _And that’s straight.”

“Congratulations!” Rose chirped.

“Thanks.” Marinette probably meant it, but her answer was rooted mostly in reflex. She was still overwhelmed.

With nothing to stare at, Marinette tried to zero in on various sounds and scents. Rose’s appropriately rose-scented perfume. Juleka’s violet shampoo. The distant laughter of boys, one electronic. The chirp of birds. 

_ Okay. Girls are on the table. What does that mean, Marinette? _

_ It means Kagami’s on the table. _

_ NO NOT LIKE THAT, STUPID BRAIN. _

_ It means… that life just got harder. Because I don’t have an easy excuse to say ‘no.’ _

_ If I want to. _

_ Not that ‘yes’ would be any easier. _

“Mari, you okay?” Juleka asked.

“Yeah,” she answered, maintaining her hold on the goth girl’s hands. “I have more questions than answers at this point. But a journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step, and this was a giant leap. It helped. A lot. Thanks, Juleka.”

“No problem. And welcome to the queer girls club. Sorry I don’t have your membership card.”

“Yeah. And now that I know I’m…” _ no shame, no guilt, this is just who you are. Own it. Positive thoughts. Pride in yourself. _“...I’m not straight, I guess I owe her--”

Marinette felt the bones of her hands pressed together under Juleka’s iron grip. “_ Nothing, _” Juleka hissed. “You owe her nothing.”

“Jules?” said Rose, worryingly. 

Marinette breathed in through her teeth. “Juleka, you’re hurting me.” But the analytical part of her brain, the part that was Ladybug, started running through threats and solutions at lightning speed. Something was deadly wrong--she had to figure out what.

“Listen,” Juleka said. “Listen carefully. They always… they always warn you about boys. They’ll take advantage. They’ll abuse you. They only want one thing. And if you’re queer and alone and a girl comes up to you and says _ she’s _ queer and alone… you might trust her. You might forget that girls can be as cruel as boys. You might forget they can be _ crueler. _”

“Oh, no. Juleka.” Rose’s sorrow was as heartrending as the pain that provoked it.

“Marinette,” Juleka said again. This time, Mari could hear tears. “If she’s good for you, great. But please. Be careful. Just like you would if she were a boy. I don’t… you don’t deserve… to be lied to like … like I was.”

Juleka dropped Marinette’s hands, and Marinette leapt towards her and pulled her into a hug. Rose joined in seconds later.

Juleka wrapper her arms around both of them. She shuddered in a single, deep sob. Then she said, calmly, “Thanks. I’m okay. I’m okay,” and pressed them away from her.

“Hey Juleka,” Rose said softly. “Since we found Marinette’s answer, how about you and me spend the rest of lunch alone? Just the two of us? We can talk until you feel better.”

“Don’t wanna talk about it,” sulked Juleka.

“I didn’t say talk about _ it. _ We can talk about the band, or my Japanese lessons, or the episodes of Heart Heart Kitty Warriors that I’m learning Japanese _ for, _or…”

Bitterly, Juleka interrupted, “...or your Catholic parents?”

“Or them,” Rose said instantly. “I think that not talking about them might have hurt you. And I never, ever, ever, _ ever _want to hurt you.”

“...Okay.”

Marinette had an intense desire to grant them their privacy, but she couldn’t exactly disappear. Politely, she reminded them she was there. “You should do that. But also, I’m here for either of you. Or both. If there’s anything I can do, anything at all--”

“There’s one thing, actually,” said Juleka. She sniffed the last tears from her nose.

Marinette snuck in another quick hug. “Name it.”

“I heard your eyes look pretty awesome. Can I see?”

Marinette was baffled. Rose, on the other hand, was scandalized. “Juleka!” she scolded. “Alya made us promise! She doesn’t want Mari put on the spot, and she has pictures anyway!”

“No, no, it’s no problem,” said Marinette with an uneasy laugh. Alya was right that having every classmate make the same request would drive Marinette up the wall. But this once, in private? It was no imposition. She pulled her sunglasses down to her chin, pointed her eyes at the sound of Juleka’s voice, and gave a long, slow blink.

“Awesome,” said Juleka. 

“My tears are silver, too, but I’m not sure how to show you. I’m not a good actor. I can’t cry on demand.”

“Pluck a nose hair?”

Marinette closed her eyes, which didn’t make much difference, but made her feel better. Oh well. She’d done stupider things for friends in less need. Here went nothing. 

“Ow, ow ow! Also gross! But...it feels like it worked?” Marinette said.

“Awesome,” Juleka repeated.

But where Juleka was impressed, Rose was outright awed. She started to gush. “Oh. Oh, wow. I changed my mind. Juleka, I’m getting on the new ship with you. That’s the most poetic, most romantic, most fairy-tale thing I have ever seen!” 

Marinette’s brain came up short. “It is?”

Rose grabbed Marinette’s wrists, and from the motion of her hands, Marinette judged that the blonde girl was literally bouncing up and down. “You said you couldn’t see past Adrien. In other words, he was blinding you.” Marinete twitched a little at Rose’s choice of words, but Rose didn’t wait for further acknowledgement. “But now your eyes are blinded by mirrors. All you can see is the back of a mirror. Even your tears are mirrors!”

“I… I don’t get it?” said Marinette.

Juleka added, “Me either, Rose.”

“Then you haven't watched enough anime!” said Rose. “Mari, do you know what a Japanese person would say has filled your eyes? The Japanese word for mirror?

Marinette shook her head.

Triumphantly, Rose whispered, “It’s _ kagami. _”


	4. Chapter 4

The class bell had rung, so Marinette had the ladies’ room to herself for the moment. Markov hovered dutifully outside the door. Marinette unclasped her choker and tucked it into the pocket of her jeans. Unrecorded, she whispered, “Stupid mirror eyes. Stupid Adrien. Stupid Kagami. Stupid _ me. _ Stupid, stupid, stupid. Tikki, _ help! _”

“Sorry, Marinette,” said the Kwami. “I can lend an antenna if you need to talk it out, but I can’t Lucky Charm away your love problems. Only you can solve them. I know it seems terrifying, but you’ve fought worse odds. You can’t really tell me that this is as scary as Scarlet Moth and his villain army.”

“Yes I can!” Marinette tugged at her pigtails. “It _ shouldn’t _be. But it is. Ladybug’s problems are much easier to deal with. That’s kinda crazy, isn’t it?”

“Objectively, yes,” Tikki said patiently. “But that’s human nature. You’re not the first Ladybug to express similar sentiment, and you won’t be the last.”

Holding one finger out like a bird perch, Marinette waited for Tikki to settle down, then patted her head with the index finger of her other hand. “On the topic of Ladybug things, are you up for a quick transformation?”

“Always, Marinette!” Tikki rubbed her head into Marinette’s finger. “But why?”

“To solve Ladybug problems. There’s still a supervillain out there with an unpurified akuma,” said Marinette. “And I can’t exactly patrol the city looking for it in my current state. I know Lucky Charm doesn’t take orders and doesn’t like being abused, but…”

“...but this is a situation where you need it. A Lucky Charm can point you in the direction you need to go, when you don’t have a viable solution immediately on-hand. I think it will work!”

Marinette smiled. “Tikki, spots on! Ha!”

The lack of sight gave Marinette a unique opportunity to _ feel _the transformation. Warmth, power, life itself crawled rapidly up her limbs. The closest analogy that Marinette could come up with was if a swarm of ladybugs had their torsos replaced with tiny hot water bottles. 

Transformation complete, Ladybug blinked. Still blind. No surprises there, but her heart had held a tiny shred of hope that the villain’s power would have waned. Oh well. “Luck Charm!” she cried, and after a little bit of blind bobbling, she caught the resultant object and tried to feel out its identity with her hands. 

It was plastic. The main body was a single piece, rectangular, the rough shape of a pencil box. It had a keypad on the front. Ladybug couldn’t read the dots on the buttons, but she could recognize the bumps as braille lettering (with her callused right hand, through her gloves, Miraculous transformation was _ weird _). Two wires emerged from the top end. Following them with her fingertips, she quickly deduced that they ended in earbuds and she was holding some sort of audio device for the visually impaired.

She put one bud into her ear and tried to guess which button said ‘play.’ But before she could find it, someone knocked on the door. “Hey, Marinette? I asked Mlle. Bustier if I could check on you. Everything okay?” 

Alya had come for her girl, and her thoughtful kindness was as heartwarming as it was poorly timed. “Spots off!” Ladybug whispered, and then “I’m fine, Alya, thanks for checking!”

The door opened and closed. “You sure, girl? You’re taking a while.”

“I… I… I couldn’t find the sink!” said Marinette. Another upside to being blind: easy excuses for Ladybug things. “I didn’t want to go to class with my hands all gross, and I couldn’t ask Markov for help because he’s a boy, so--”

“Hey, Mari, I got you. Don’t worry! Can I come in?”

“Yeah, I’m decent.”

Alya opened the stall door. She lifted Marinette from under her armpits, then took her forearms and led her hands-first to the sink. Some washing and drying later, they entwined arms, and Alya guided her back in the direction of the classroom. 

“Hey Markov, I’m gonna need a lot of help in the next class,” Marinette said, preempting any hand-wringing over his ‘failure’ to guide her in the restroom. “I’m not sure how I’m going to do algebra when I can’t see any of the equations.”

“We’ll figure it out!” the robot said cheerfully. “I’m a fully licensed and certified assistance device. I have several viable alternatives for math education!”

“Thanks, Markov. I--”

Marinette’s stomach rumbled. 

Alya stopped them and grabbed Marinette by the shoulders. “Did you even eat during your lunch break?” she asked with a mix of worry and irritation.

Marinette gave her own body a hug. “I had a lot to deal wi--mmmph!” Her mouth closed around a piece of dried fruit. 

“Eat!” said Alya. Marinette chewed and swallowed the apple slice (Trixx’s favorite) and tried to answer, but Alya silenced her with another. “Eat I said!”

“Thanks, Alya,” said Marinette after she swallowed.

“You can thank me by coming to me for help _ before _you starve, next time,” said Alya. “I know you’ve been stressing lately.”

“I’ve got a lot on my plate,” said Marinette. Then she hastily corrected, “All good things! All the homework is paying off in my GPA, my design commissions are getting attention and giving me some spending money, I’m feeling super-positive about the upcoming meeting with the school board.”

“Not to mention your mystery advice from Rose and Juleka,” teased Alya.

Marinette turned red. 

“Okay, okay, I’ll stop!” Alya chuckled. “In all seriousness, girl. I signed up as Deputy Class Rep as an excuse to hang out with you, but I do have the title and I know a thing or two about research and investigation. I can take over your work for the school board meeting if that’ll free up some time for you to have meals. I’ve got some ideas of my own, too, watching you and Lila coping. Dupont could stand to revamp its disability policies.”

The offer was so close to a good one, so near to perfect that Marinette almost said yes. But Lila was a gap in Alya’s armor, and Marinette couldn’t let her lies taint what would otherwise be an expertly-researched work. “That’s okay, Alya. You’re busy too, with your blog and all.”

“If you’re sure. Come on, then, let’s get going.” One more dried apple slice appeared in Marinette’s mouth, and then their arms entwined and Alya led her the rest of the way to class.

Marinette had hoped to make an unobtrusive entrance to M. Hermite’s algebra class. Fate, and her classmates, were not so kind. Alya led her to her seat next to Max and Marinette was about to sit when Markov began to whoop. “Warning! Obstruction detected! Warning!”

Catching her weight on the bench’s edge, Marinette said, “Thanks, Markov. What’s the obstruction?”

Max answered. “It appears to be mint-flavored chewing gum.”

Alix was the first to respond, shouting from her seat towards the back of the room. “Chloe, what the actual _ fuck! _This is a new low even for you!”

“Mlle. Kubdel, _ language, _” insisted the teacher. M. Hermite was a feeble man in every respect, rail-thin, pale, and weak-willed. His calls for order went unheeded. 

“What makes you blame _ me?” _Chloe asked petulantly.

Alix answered. “Because you’ve done this exact thing before. Repeatedly. To the same target.”

“I’ll have you know that I haven’t put gum in anyone’s seat, hair, or clothing since Ladybug chose me to be Queen Bee!” Chloe’s heels clacked on the ground as she rose from her chair. “It’s ridiculous, utterly ridiculous, to think that one of Paris’s heroes would stoop to such juvenile tactics!”

“Ummm, _ are _ you still a hero?” Mylene asked, softness hiding steel. “Queen Bee hasn’t been active for months.”

“Of course I am! I’m just on--hiatus! Until Ladybug needs me again!”

“Alright then, hiatus hero.” Alix was standing too, from the sound of it. “If you didn’t stick that gum there, who did?”

“Well, there’s a perfectly clear answer to that...which I’m sure Sabrina will tell you. Right Sabrina?”

“Oh, um, right, that is…” Sabrina hemmed and hawed. “Marinette… put it there herself?”

Marinettte rubbed her temples. “Why would I do that?”

“For attention,” said Chloe, “Just like how Lila said you jumped in the supervillains path for attention, too!”

Gasps sounded from various points in the class. Marinette, however, was waiting for the other shoe to drop.

Lila was a good liar because she could bluff past her stories’ inconsistencies with brazen charisma and an unshakeable poker face. In terms of the cleverness of her lies, she was middle-of-the-road at best. But to confront Marinette directly in a competition of trustworthiness, when Marinette was at her most pitiably sympathetic? No, even Lila wasn’t that short-sighted. She had an angle.

And indeed, Lila promptly spoke up, proving Marinette right. “Chloe, how could you put words into my mouth!”

“But… but you said--”

“I said the people _ with _ me thought that! _ They _ insisted that they saw her throwing herself at the villain. Obviously _ I _ know that Marinette would _ never _ do something like that. Though I can’t swear to it, since I didn’t see it for myself...”

Someone was walking up to Marinette. A hand touched her shoulder. Adrien spoke from right next to her, and it should have been magical. “We _ all _know that she’d never do anything like that. Whatever those people thought they saw, they were wrong.”

Adrien was next to her, touching her, standing up for her, and it should have been magical except he was playing right into her trap. _ “Those people” don’t exist! _she shouted internally, to no avail. He’d validated Lila’s story; he’d provided fertile soil to grow the seeds of doubt that Lila was sowing.

“I… I…” Lila, despite her overwhelming victory, had no difficulty faking sadness. “I was going to offer to put in a good word with Ladybug for you, Chloe, but if you’re just going to throw me under the bus--”

“I’m sorry, I’m sorry, I’m sorry!” she begged. “Please, let me make it up to you!”

“Are you going to make up this prank to _ me? _” Marinette asked, keeping her voice level with supreme effort.

“What’s to make up? I told you, I didn’t do it, and if the word of Queen Bee isn’t good enough for you then that’s not my problem!” Chloe stomped, then addressed the liar. “Lila, I insist that I take you shopping this afternoon. I owe Ladybug’s bestie an apology.”

“Oh, no, I couldn’t possibly!” said Lila. “How about the Forum des Halles? We can stop for ice cream on the way.”

“Done and done. Sabrina, text the driver!”

“Sure thing, Chloe!”

“Marinette?” Adrien whispered. “You okay?”

“She’s lying. Lying about everything.” She’d put her choker back on, and it buzzed to tell her than Markov had recorded a note. Marinette couldn’t be bothered to delete it.

“I know, but it’s not hurting anyone--”

“It’s hurting _ me. _”

Adrien stood in silence for several moments. “Okay. I’ll have a talk with her and let her know she’s going too far. She still wants to be my friend. She’ll listen.”

“Ow!” Lila’s shrill cry came from her seat. “Oh, Adrien, can I please have your help!”

“The seat is clear now, Marinette,” said Max.

“And I think we’ve disrupted my class quite enough,” M. Hermite added weakly. 

“Yes, teacher,” said Marinette, easing herself into her seat after Adrien had left her side. The teacher began to lecture before she was fully situated. Unsurprisingly, she couldn’t follow any of it.

She closed her eyes tightly behind her sunglasses. She thought of Markov and Max, trying and failing to help her follow algebra she couldn’t see. She thought of Alya, so desperate to play peacemaker between her friend and her ‘friend.’ She thought of Adrien, so fixated on his ‘high road’ that he’d let Lila run roughshod over the rest of the class.

“M. Hermite?” she said. She was choked up, but with luck, the class would write it off as frustration at her own incapacity. “I’m sorry, I’m completely lost today. May I step outside? I promise I’ll review the notes when I’m better.”

“Of course, my dear. Be well.” The teacher waited for Markov’s loud beeping to cease once she’d followed it out of the room. She heard him resume his lecture as the door closed behind her. Then, she slumped to a seat against the wall.

Markov hovered near the floor, at her level. “I’m sorry that I wasn’t properly equipped to help you with mathematics, Marinette. If you have any suggestions, I can incorporate them into version 2 of my assistance suite.”

“Not your fault,” said Marinette. “This would be much easier if I knew braille, but I haven’t had time to learn.”

“Can I do anything for you while we wait for class to finish?” he asked.

“You can, actually. I can’t type; can you access my phone and send a text to one of my contacts?”

“Of course!” he said. She pulled her phone from her purse, letting Tikki steal an affectionate finger-nuzzle on the way, and held it out to Markov. She heard a wire unspooling from somewhere in his chassis and a click of a connector entering a port.

“Who’s the contact, Marinette?”

“Kagami Tsurugi.”

“And what should I tell her?”

“Tell her…” She swallowed a sob. “Tell her, ‘I wish you were here'.”


	5. Chapter 5

Kagami was in school, so Marinette hadn’t thought she’d reply at all. The ten minute wait was comparatively short when she’d expected to hear nothing until the end of the day.

“Kagami: The accommodations are insufficient? My mother will have words,” Markov narrated. 

“Thanks, Markov. Um. Not that you’re insufficient or anything!”

“Oh, is that what you’re talking about?” he said glumly.

“Huh?” Marinette canted her head. “You just read it to me.”

“On an isolated subroutine. I respect your privacy!” he explained.

“That’s incredibly thoughtful, Markov. And no, that’s not what we’re talking about. Just a miscommunication. You’ve been spectacular. Umm, my replies are isolated, too?”

“Mmm hmm!” His propeller bobbed slowly up and down by her head, staying low, near her seated position. “But I’m capable of making basic deductions and I’m guessing this involves Lila. I have to confess I’m a little disappointed in Max’s credulity. I can raise the subject with him this evening.”

“Thanks, Markov, but no. I don’t need to wrap more people up in this. Here’s my reply--isolated, right?” she asked.

“Ready!”

“They’re doing fine. Math is tough, but science and literature were okay. The problem is Lila being Lila. I wish I had someone here in my corner.”

The response came seconds later. “Kagami: I’m disappointed. I thought Adrien was on guard against her manipulations.”

“Reply: He is, and he’s helping a little, but he’s committed to solving the problem without making a scene or hurting feelings.”

The next response was a little slower. “Kagami: He’s too nice for his own good. The next time we spar, I will beat some sense into him. I have a few minutes between classes if you need help strategizing.”

“Reply: It’s too complicated. I’ll tell you in person later.”

“Kagami: What would you like to do this afternoon? Mother has freed my schedule.”

That was a good question. What did she want to do? The answer that immediately sprang to mind was ‘hole up in a pile of blankets and be alone,’ but that probably wasn’t healthy. And besides, Kagami was likely to stay glued to her side, so keeping her cooped up would be incredibly inconsiderate. And there was the akuma to consider as well, and that strange Lucky Charm…

“Reply: The Louvre,” she said.

“Kagami: While you are blind?”

“Reply: You have a free day in your incredibly busy schedule. I won’t let you throw it away on my account. Let’s work on your bucket list. And besides, they have audio-guided tours, right?”

“Kagami: Twenty-year-old soundboxes in desperate need of update, but yes, they do. If you’re certain?”

_ Bingo. _“Reply: Absolutely.” Through the door, the sound of a dozen bookbags being closed rustled in Marinette’s ears. “Reply: Math class is done. History ought to be easier to follow. Gotta go. Thanks for being a friend. Wait, shoot, Markov, delete that last sentence!” 

Marinette was intimately familiar with the exquisite pain of her crush telling her, truthfully, that she was his friend. Yes, Kagami _ was _Marinette’s friend, and if that was ever going to change, it hadn’t happened yet. But there was no reason to rub it in. The last thing she needed was an akumatized Kagami staging a repeat of the Evillustrator incident. “Change it to: Thanks for being on my side. Markov, you can send it now.”

Her necklace buzzed. Marinette leaned on the wall and found her feet just as the first students exited. A snooty _ hmmph _and a whiff of honey perfume told her that Chloe had breezed right past her. However, her shadow did take the time to address Marinette. “You’ve got no reason to believe either of us, but I swear she was telling the truth. It wasn’t her!” said Sabrina. Then she scurried off to catch up to her friend before Marinette could respond. 

Marinette was still chewing on that when Alya swept her arm and dragged her to history class.

\-----

History class was dull, which was perfect. Mme. Dupain (no relation) was as old-fashioned as she was old, and her pedagogy was lectures and worksheets and little else. A small mercy was the time period currently under study, that of the real-life Musketeers of the Guard. Marinette dutifully recited notes for Markov to transcribe, and entertained herself by comparing what she learned to Dumas’s fictionalized representation. 

Twenty minutes into the class, Alya interrupted with a request to go to the restroom, which was granted. “Oh, it occurs to me. Marinette, are you going to need to go? I can take you now, to save everyone the trouble of multiple trips.”

Marinette didn’t need to go at all, but she knew how to take a hint, so she assented, stood, and offered her arm.

“What’s up?” Marinette asked as the walked the school’s empty halls.

“Urgent strategy session. Did you notice Lila and Adrien sneaking in a few minutes after the rest of the class?” 

Marinette hadn’t, but it fit with Adrien’s promise to talk to Lila. And Lila hadn’t made a peep all class. She shook her head in negation.

“Well whatever they talked about, she’s been all over him ever since!” Alya felt Marinette sagging and propped her back up. “Hey, no giving up that easy! Unless you _ have _ given up, that is. I know you wanted to wait to tell me about your super-secret girl talk with Rose and Juleka, but if you’re committed to going after Luka, let me know before I make a fool of myself in class.”

Ah. Adrien agreeing to a fake date would explain Lila’s cooperative behavior. And it was a bearable solution. Marinette’s jealousy was tempered by her certainty that his fake feelings would never, _ ever _become real. It surely didn’t qualify as any kind of betrayal, since Marinette’s own failings had kept Adrien blissfully ignorant of her own love. 

But on the topic of betrayal…

“I’m glad you’re willing to side with me against Lila. This time,” Marinette said.

“I’ve never _ not _been on your side, girl!” insisted Alya. “Door!” She took a quick step ahead of Marinette to pull the bathroom door open, then slingshotted Marinette around her to get her inside. Marinette stumbled to keep up but stayed on her feet. “When do you think I wasn’t?”

“How about _ every _time I told you she was lying?” sighed Marinette.

“Oh, damn.” Alya’s sorrow was palpable. “I guess it makes sense you’d see it that way, but that’s totally not what was happening.”

“Then what _ was _happening?”

“Okay. Umm. It’s like this. Remember how after I was akumatized for the first time, you called me out for putting the whole city in danger by hunting down Ladybug’s secret identity?”

Marinette frowned. “I wasn’t calling you out, not exactly--”

“Oh you were super-duper nice about it, but you were totally calling me out. For good reason! But here’s the thing: when you told me to stop hunting Ladybug down, would you say you were taking Ladybug’s side over mine?”

“That’s absurd!” Marinette said, submerging herself in her cover identity of the hapless civilian schoolgirl. “Ladybug’s an icon, but she’s not a friend. Neither of us have any idea what she’s like behind the mask. I was trying to protect _ you, _ Alya, not _ her. _You weren’t thinking of the consequences of your actions, and as your friend, I had to make sure you didn’t end up making a mistake that you’d have to live with for the rest of your life.”

“_ Exactly, _ ” Alya said calmly. “Marinette, you’re one of the best people I’ve ever known. And seeing you eaten up with paranoia over a nice girl who happens to have some interesting connections? It _ sucked. _ So I called you out, not to defend Lila, but to help my girl be her best self. I’d never take Lila’s side over yours--I’d pick you over _ anyone _ in this school, with the _ possible _exception of Nino. I’ll take your side no matter what, and I really hope you know that. You with me?”

“I… I’m with you.”

“But sometimes, being on your side looks like I’m not on your side. I’m there for whatever you need--even when what you need is a little tough love. Does… does that make sense?”

Marinette blinked away tears. Under any other circumstances, if it had been anyone _ but _Lila, Alya’s speech would have been among the most touching moments of Marinette’s life. Unable to verbalize, Marinette rested her head on Alya’s shoulder and nodded.

“We cool?”

“Yeah,” Marinette said softly. “We’re cool.”

“Great.” Alya clapped. “Now. What do you want to do about Mlle. Rossi and M. Agreste?” asked Alya.

“Nothing,” said Marinette.

“Nothing?” Alya pulled herself away from Marinette, grabbing her by her shoulders and holding her at arms’ length. “You sure?”

“If I’m right about Lila, then Adrien will have plenty of time to figure it out himself. And if I’m wrong,” _ and the fact that I’m even considering it means I’m going insane _, “then… it’s not right for us to interfere. If… if you want me to be my best self, then… you’re going to have to help me let go of jealousy. Right?”

“Yeah,” said Alya, softly. “Yeah. Are you gonna be okay this afternoon with just you and Kagami? I can tag along--”

“No!” Marinette bit her lip. That had been way stronger than intended. “No. I’m not upset. I know this will work out. I’m making all kinds of demands on one of my friends while I’m disabled. I won’t steal your whole day from you, too. But it means a lot to me that you offered.”

“What are friends for?” One of the hands on Marinette’s shoulders lifted to give her a light punch. 

“Yeah,” Marinette said. “Anything else?”

“Well yeah,” answered Alya. “I wasn’t lying to Mme. Dupain. I’ve gotta take a leak!” Marinette laughed and let Alya do her business, and then the two of them went back to class.

\-------

The rest of class passed quickly. Whatever Lila was doing to Adrien, it was quiet and Marinette couldn’t see it, so she zoned it out in favor of the drone of a history lecture. Mme. Dupain talked until the bell rang, at which time everyone hustled to get out as quickly as possible. 

An unfamiliar arm wrapped around Marinette’s. “Hey,” someone said quietly. “It’s Rose. Can I walk you out of school?”

“Sure,” said Marinette. “What’s up?”

“Nothing in particular, _ oh no watch the doorframe! _” Rose was as squishy as a marshmallow and her grasp on Marinette’s arm was equally pliable. Marinette had drifted a few inches to the side on the short walk from desk to door, and her shoulder brushed against wood, millimeters away from true impact. 

“I’m fine,” said Marinette, adjusting her own hold on Rose to compensate. Then Alya--Marinette knew it was her from the faint, earthy scent of a woman too honest to mask herself with perfumes--grabbed her other side. 

“I got you two,” Alya said. The three of them kept moving, securely but haltingly, constantly waiting for other students to clear out of their three-abreast walk.

“You were saying, Rose? Juleka’s okay, right?” Marinette asked.

“Oh, she’s fine! She wanted some time to think, but we’re going to talk more tomorrow. All I was saying was that I’m here to be friendly. I thought you could use a nice gesture, since lunch was hard on all of us.”

“It was?” Alya pried.

Marinette groaned. “Yes, Alya, we had a very difficult, very _ private _conversation over lunch.”

“Fine, fine, keep your secrets!”

“Sorry, Alya,” Rose said. “And Mari, I know this whole blindness thing is stress on top of the other things you’re going through. I hope it’s okay for me to be here?”

“Any time,” said Marinette. Then, having second thoughts, “Well, not any time. If I don’t get my sight back by tomorrow I’ll need to pull a few all-nighters to catch up on my commissions list, plus the time it will take me to catch up on all the schoolwork I couldn’t do. But… if Alya doesn’t mind letting me go one afternoon, I’d love to have lunch with you again.”

“Just promise you’ll remember to eat this time,” Alya quipped.

“Oh, Marinette, you _ didn’t!I” _

“Look, I--”

Marinette had lost track of their travel, but it seemed they’d reached the end of the hallway. “Mlle. Dupain-Chang!” Boomed the voice of Principal Damocles. “I do hope everything was to your and Mme. Tsurugi’s satisfaction? If not, please give us a chance to redeem ourselves, no need for lawyers to get involved!”

_ Mme. Tsurugi really put the fear of herself into him, huh? _

She was preparing to answer when the patter of rushing feet warned her that someone was rapidly approaching. 

Oh great, it was Lila. 

“Principal Damocles!” she said, short of breath. “I’m sorry to rush you, but I just got so _ excited _and I wanted to make sure everything went by the book.”

“By the book, Mlle. Rossi?” the principal inquired.

“I need to get your permission to leave classes early on Friday along with Adrien--I’m going to be in a photo shoot with him!”

Damocles gave a wheedling non-answer, but Marinette didn’t hear any of it. 

_ How could he. How _ could _ he! _ A photo shoot for the Gabriel brand? That wasn’t just a token to assuage her. That was an opportunity that any aspiring model would kill for, possibly literally. And he just handed that out? As a _ reward _for her lies?

No. This was too damn far. “You’re faking,” Marinette growled. 

“Oh, Marinette,” Lila said, sounding positively delighted. “I have no idea what you’re talking about. Faking what?”

“Faking all this,” Marinette said. “The disability. The eyepatch. You never were anywhere near that supervillain. This is all just a pathetic ploy for attention, and I can’t believe that _ everyone _is buying into it.”

“Girl, _ chill, _” Alya warned. Marinette’s response was to shove her aside. Rose also backed off nervously, leaving Marinette unsupported in the darkness.

“Mlle. Dupain-Cheng, please, there’s no call for any of this!” M. Damocles attempted to play peacemaker, to no avail. “Tensions are high, but please, let’s not throw around wild accusations at one another!”

“I… I know you’ve never liked me,” said Lila in bogus misery. “But… to accuse me of faking all this? That’s just cruel, Marinette--”

Marinette ripped off her sunglasses. She stared blankly, first at the Principal, who gasped, and then at Lila. “Then prove it. Take off your eyepatch and show Principal Damocles your eye. If he tells me your eye looks like mine do, I’ll apologize. I’ll do it on my hands and knees, in front of the whole class.”

“I… I can’t believe that you’d… you believe me, right, Alya? You have to?”

“Hey Lila, Marinette’s having a real hard time.” Alya was nervous, trying to walk a tight-rope between two ‘friends,’ and no amount of repeating _ she means well, she means well _ could make the hurt leave Marinette’s heart. “She doesn’t mean what she’s saying. Let’s just let it go, okay?”

“Ruh-ruh-Rose?” Lila started sniffling. “Y--you’re not going to turn against me, are you?”

“Oh man,” said Alya, “come on, this is just a misunderstanding! You don’t need to cry!”

Rose haltingly started to answer, “Well, I… that is…” and for a moment Marinette felt as low as when Chameleon’s akuma had first came for her in that bathroom stall. But then things changed. “You _ are _crying, aren’t you?” Rose said, but with curiosity, not care. She reclaimed her position at Marinette’s side. “Umm, Marinette?”

“Yeah, Rose?” she answered with faint hope.

“I’m really sorry, but… I need to pluck one of your nose hairs.”

Marinette sighed in defeat. “That’s fine, I under--wait, what did you just sa--OW!”

“Mlle. Lavillant!” the principal shouted. 

“Lila’s crying,” Rose said. “She has tears running down her face. Crystal-clear, salty, watery tears”

_ Oh. _

_ Oh! _

_ Thank you, Rose, you are amazing. _

Marinette turned her face to M. Damocles, showing him the opaque, metallic, silvery tears dripping from her eyes.

“Oh,” said Alya. “Oh. Oh, _ shit. _”

“I’m with Marinette,” said Rose. “I’d like to see what’s under that eyepatch, please.”

“You’ll regret this,” Lila whispered.

“Wh...what?” said Rose, terrified. Blindness hadn’t dulled Marinette’s protective instincts, and she moved herself between the blonde and the sound of the liar’s voice.

The lapse was over almost instantly, “I know you’ll regret this later, Rose, because you’re so nice and such a good friend, but what you’re saying right now is really hurtful!” She paused, probably making a gesture that Marinette couldn’t see. “I swear I’d take off this eyepatch right now, but the vertigo is so bad that I can’t!”

It was like playing whack-a-mole. Smack down one lie and another popped up somewhere else. “How can a blind eye give you Vertigo?” Marinette accused.

“_ Legally _blind! It has 20/600 vision. Totally useless for anything except making me fall over and get sick on my clothes.”

“Girl, this is a real bad look for you,” said Alya. Marinette knew her friend well enough to hear the seething caldera of anger about to erupt from her. Under ordinary circumstances, she’d step in to calm Alya down. Today, she _ wanted _ an explosion. Alya had said she’d take Marinette’s side over anyone--now was her time to put her money where her mouth is. “Two seconds is all it takes to end this whole thing. I’ve put a _ lot _of faith in you, Lila. I really don’t want to believe that you’re a liar--”

“So don’t!” Lila was beginning to sound desperate. She’d bitten off more than she could chew, and now she was choking on it. _ Good. _

“--but we all need to see that eye. _ Now.” _

Marinette again failed to follow a scuffle of action, but judging from Lila’s shriek and the principal’s tutting, Alya had been intercepted in a failed lunge for Lila’s eyepatch. “I… I’m sorry, I can’t deal with this! I have to go!” said Lila, fleeing out the door. 

“Get back here!” said Marinette, staggering after her. Rose, too meek to follow, was left behind. She unintentionally shoulder-checked her way past the principal, heading in a direction that she hoped was the door.

“Marinette!” Alya cried.

“Ladybug’s charm will destroy the evidence! We have to see her eye _ before _\--” 

The school’s floor was about three centimeters higher than the exterior platform at the entryway. Those three centimeters barely matted when you knew they were there. But they were enough to completely unbalance Marinette, because the ground wasn’t where she expected it to be. She hurtled forward, bracing for a crash with the ground. 

Instead, she landed in strong arms and a short, wiry, feminine body. 

“Marinette!” said the girl who’d caught her.

“Ka--Kagami?”

Kagami squatted under Marinette’s prone weight, then heaved until Marinette’s feet were back under her. “I saw Lila fleeing the school from my seat in the car. I came as fast as I could. I’m relieved that I made it in time.”

Kagami. Kagami had come for her. Kagami had caught her. Kagami had saved her.

The shorter girl misinterpreted Marinette’s silence, and began prodding her arms with her fingers--checking for injury, Marinette realized. “Are you alright? Are you safe?” Kagami asked.

“I’m safe,” Marinette said. Then she grabbed Kagami in her tightest hug, and buried her tears in her savior’s shoulder. “At least, I am _now.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> And that's a wrap to this episode of Seeing One Another! Please make sure you follow the series, not just the story, so you can be alerted when Part 4: Blind Spots begins shortly. Thanks for reading!


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